Follow-up: How do couples surf?

“It’s difficult to communicate things like images, sounds and URLs through speech.”

This is one of the answers Momus got when, a short while ago, he was looking for feedback/input for his Wired column iMomus. He was trying to figure out how the internet, and more specifically surfing habits, impact on a couple’s life. With hundreds of comments from his readers, some patterns emerged to answer these questions:

What are the effects of information addiction on your life together?

Is the internet age less cozy and communal than the TV age?

Might the “virtual personal space” of a laptop screen be a lifesaver for a couple crammed into a too-small physical space?

Is surfing solitude or a new form of sociability?

What about “asymmetrical addiction” — does the first one to be bored online dictate offline activities, or does the one who wants to stay online longest make the other one click around aimlessly for hours?

Can jealousy, that primitive monster that sleeps inside us, distinguish the threat of human sexual rivals from the threat posed by the winking green LEDs of the very machines that bring them into our living room?

I won’t quote the answers here – those you can find on Wired, and it’s darn well worth a read: